Hello, I received the Blue Screen of Death during bootup just now. I have not installed any new software or drivers recently. My machine is Dell Dimension 8400 with Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition SP3 32-bit and all the latest Windows Updates. After recording the STOP code which is: BAD_POOL_CALLER 0x000000C2 (0x00000007, 0x00000CD4, 0x04100605, 0xE1B65908 ) I rebooted my machine and booted up as "last known good configuration" I checked event viewer, C:\WINDOWS\Minidump, and C:\WINDOWS for further information to the Blue Screen of Death. There was nothing recorded in event viewer, and no file in the Minidump folder. As you might know, I made a post about a Blue Screen just last weekend which occured on this computer but had a different stop code. What do you suppose is causing the Blue Screen (-- what do the parameters of my BSOD usually indicate?) Is my computer DYING? Regards, Mark. PS: *VERY STRANGE* The left side of the Blue Screen of Death is cut off. I saw the full parameters but only saw "_POOL_CALLER" with part of the "D" before the first "_". I inferred "...D_POOL_CALLER" to be BAD_POOL_CALLER.
Guess I knew it would not be that easy. Here is some reading for you. Maybe one of these will do the trick.
Hi Mark, the BSOD is actually a good thing to happen and a way for Windows to stop everything at once give you some information and not to cause any damage, eg loss of data. Troubleshooting your dump file can be relatively easy with a Microsoft tool called WinDbg. The hardest parts of the analysing is telling the debugger where the symbol package is (usually a string pointing to the symbol server on the Microsoft website or saved to a network drive - reason for this comes apparent specially in an organisation where the symbols are required by other technical staff and computers) and, pressing 'Open Crash Dump' and choosing the memory dump. WinDbg does all the work you would require, which is what in Windows or 3rd party driver is causing the bug check. WinDbg will throw up the information you need right there after an analysis. You can do your own analysis with simple commands and see what process the debugger went through, passed over, before flagging what came up. Armed with the information from here and the event viewer should in practice give you what you need to stabilise things whether that's updating a device driver or simply having to uninstall some component etc or giving you pointers in resolving the problem. Memory dump, Mini dump... I always suggest if in a small or home environment to choose a Kernel memory dump although the 64KB Small memory dump file should have enough information to give you what you want but why I go for Kernal is it is more complete and makes a mini dump file as well so you get both. bad_pool_caller from WinDbg help...
Hello, Thanks for your response and screenshot, you are quite right. However, there was nothing recorded in event viewer, and no memory dump file in the Minidump folder. So how do I analyze it then? Also, do you think a memory dump file wasn't recorded because I booted up as "last known good configuration"? Regards, Mark.
Hi, I turned on the computer now. It said that Windows had recovered from a serious error (after the computer was completely booted up). Event Viewer recorded something: Type: Error Source: System Error Event ID: 1003 Category: (102) Error code 1000008e, parameter1 c0000005, parameter2 805a3a9f, parameter3 af99b804, parameter4 00000000. It wasn't a recorded in Event Viewer as a "bugcheck", nothing new was in C:\WINDOWS\Minidump, and there was no Blue Screen in my face during bootup. So I don't think it was a blue screen.. What is this?
When a BSOD happens on a older computer that had no troubles at all or until recently. And no driver change, new hardware or new software and no mucking about in the registry. I always think bad hardware. And on an older Dell specifically a bad PSU. It's fine till it gets hot. Or random errors.
you might need to tell xp to make a minidump, i'm not very good with xp so i might be completely wrong, so keep that in mind! lol http://www.eddieoneverything.com/wi...prepexe-dump-reporting-tool-on-windows-xp.php these two links might help with the debugger, it's just basic stuff - http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/debugstart.mspx http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich/archive/2007/10/15/2178879.aspx
Hello, I did install the new version of Google Earth - Google Earth 5. If the Blue Screen of Death occurs yet again, I will uninstall that to see if that solves the issue. If it happens again and uninstalling it does not solve the issue perhaps it is a hardware (PSU?) problem... Is there any easy way to tell if the PSU is the problem before it gets to the stage where the computer overheats / won't boot up at all? How easy is it to get a new PSU from Dell, and how easy is it to install it into the computer? Thanks for your prompt reply. Mark.
If it's hardware. It could be a few diffent things. Bad fans, dust in the case, bad RAM, not enough RAM, bad electricity, RAM not seated correctly, various connectors coming loose, bad cables, etc. If it was me. I'm quite adept at ruling some of out by opening & checking out inside the case. But I don't know you, your skill, experience, comfort level, if this computer is backed up & or mission critical, if computers & parts are easy & affordable to get in your locale, if you have money to fix it. I looked up this computer. Dell Dimension 8400 (Pentium 4 560 3.6GHz, 512MB RAM, 80GB HDD, XP Pro) It's circa 4 years ago. I'd weigh my time, money (fixing vs. buying new) & the very likely possibility of ongoing hardware problems. Straight up can you afford & get a new desktop ($300-700) to replace what you have. Dependent on various preferences. Or these days a midrange laptop on sale for ~$400. That is if you're not comfortable mucking about, think you might be throwing good money after bad, or other factors. Oh and I think Dell would rob you for any replacement parts. Just my $.02.
Thank you to everyone who has replyed in this thread. Today I got the BSOD again. This time it wasn't during boot-up, rather, it occured just after I had finished logging in. However, this time there was a file saved in C:\WINDOWS\Minidump. I would like to analyze it in hope that it will tell me what is going on with my computer with these random Blue Screens. I think I will use WinDBG to analyze it, but how do I use WinDBG? I'm new at these sorts of things... Am I supposed to type in !analyze -v (according to Wikipedia) or something? Is it a safe install? Is it easy to understand? Is this the correct link for it: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/installx86.mspx#a? I'm not on a server. Thanks! Regards, Mark.
